Sacraments

BAPTISMAll requests should be made 60 days prior to the desired date of Baptism during the latter months of pregnancy or soon after birth.

MARRIAGES Please make arrangements for a date at the rectory at least 4 months prior to the marriage.

“Catholics believe that the Sacraments are like ladders that God gave to Himself by which He climbs down to us. The Catholic view of the Sacraments is that they are the means of salvation; that God really forgives your sins when the priest pronounces absolution in Christ’s name and in His authority; that God really regenerates your soul and removes Original Sin when you are baptized; that Christ really unites Himself to your soul in a spiritual marriage when you receive Holy Communion. Catholics believe that the Sacraments are how we cross over 2,000 years and become ‘contemporary with Christ,’ or rather how Christ crosses over and becomes contemporary with us. The answer is that we meet not just spiritually and subjectively, in our minds; we meet materially and objectively in and through the matter the Sacraments… The Sacraments are not ‘magical’ because they are not automatic. We can block the grace, and we usually do, more or less, like stopping down a faucet, or pulling down the window blinds. But the water, or the light, comes from God, not from us. Christ really comes to meet us and sanctify us in the Sacraments, however little we may appreciate Him” (Peter Kreeft, Jesus Shock, pp. 115-116).

Baptism

You are my beloved son…You are my beloved daughter

Confession

Encountering Jesus through his mercy

First Communion

This is my body given up for you . . .

Confirmation

Commissioned to make disciples

Marriage

A Sacrament Worth Mentioning

Holy Orders

The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus – St. John Vianney

Anointing of the Sick

“Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith shall save him that is sick, and the Lord shall raise him up” (Jas. 5:14, 15).